


advice is like the snow

by leighbot



Series: Tomlinshaw Kidfic [2]
Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-03-01 06:33:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2763197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leighbot/pseuds/leighbot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick was Beth’s absolute favorite person in the world, and the only things keeping Louis from boiling inside with jealousy were the absolute joy on her face when she saw him and the feeling he’d get in his own stomach when he would. </p><p>Or, the one where Louis ignores Nick's advice and Nick does what he knows is best anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	advice is like the snow

**Author's Note:**

> More Tomlinson kidfic.
> 
> Part of a larger verse that will most likely never be completed. Can be read before/after/independently of the other timestamps. Beth is about 22 months.
> 
> Full quote from title is Coleridge. "Advice is like the snow: the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon- and the deeper it sinks into- the mind." Because I am nothing if not original.

Dating a pediatrician when you were the father of an almost two year old girl was usually full of Nick giving advice and Louis rolling his eyes and ignoring it. Nick always had an opinion on whether or not she was getting too big to carry, how to get her on a schedule or how to stop her from getting crabby. In those instances, Louis would just roll his eyes and pick her up, let her stay up past her nap time or pull silly faces until her mood passed. Nick was always cheerful when Louis would ignore him, often hooking his chin over Louis' shoulder to pull a face for Beth, commenting, "Daddy doesn't listen to me, huh, love? No, he thinks he knows more than someone who deals with babies for a living does. Silly Daddy."

Beth would usually laugh back and pat Nick's cheek, repeating "silly daddy."

Nick was Beth’s absolute favorite person in the world, and the only things keeping Louis from boiling inside with jealousy were the absolute joy on her face when she saw him and the feeling he’d get in his own stomach when he would. The relationship was past the point of “too much, too fast” and Louis couldn’t force himself to get nervous about it if he tried. Nick just  _fit_ . He was always friendly with Beth’s mum, had loved Jay since they met, kept up with Louis’ friends as if he’d known them his whole life and worshipped Beth with whole-hearted enthusiasm. He stayed over at Louis’ several nights a week and was always good-natured when he had to leave for an early shift, tucking the covers back around Louis and checking on Beth before slipping quietly from the room.

Every time his daughter looked at him and asked “where my Grimmy?” Louis would smile his hardest, kiss her on the cheek and tell her “soon.”

~*~

One day, a couple months before her second birthday, Louis had her in the courtyard with him, playing in the snow together. She had loved it when Nick had taken her out one afternoon, teaching her to make snowmen and snow angels, and would often stand at the windows in the days since, looking for the next sign of snow. When Louis had noticed a fresh layer as he made his morning tea, he knew he’d willingly take her out and play. Though she had loved it with Nick, with Louis she was in a right state. She wouldn’t sit in the snow to play but cried when he picked her up, wanting to be down. He tried to lie down next to her and make snow angels like Nick had, but she just cried harder.

He had only lasted about twenty minutes- was frustrated, losing his patience and about to take her inside against her protests- when Nick walked up. Louis looked up at him from where he was crouched down, taking in his boyfriend’s smart grey pea coat and tight black pants.

Even when he was flushed from cold and annoyance, he still thought Nick looked  _so good_ .

Nick put on a silly face and crouched next to him, reaching out to Beth for their customary high-five. She cried and reached for him with both arms. “Grimmy!”

Nick shot Louis a confused look as he pulled her into his chest. Louis just shrugged and stood up with them, brushing the snow from his legs.

Nick bounced her in his arms a bit, shushing her tears. “What’s the matter, little love?”

Beth cried more. “Can’t make angels.”

“I tried to make snow angels with her, but she cried every time,” Louis explained. He rubbed his hand along Beth’s back through her coat and tried to figure out what had upset his daughter so desperately.

“Maybe she’s just having a toddler day,” Nick suggested. “We’ve had too many perfect baby days in a row; we’re overdue for a bad one.”

Louis ignored the tug in his gut when Nick used ‘we’ and tried to tamper down his smile. “I just don’t want her to miss out on the snow. There’s never been this much since I can remember, and I wanted to get pictures.”

Nick lifted Beth away from him for a minute, looking at her curiously. She blinked and sniffled, the oval around her eyes the only visible skin; even her eyebrows were tucked under her scarf. He set her down again on her feet, ignoring her protests. He crouched in front of her and looked up at Louis with a sly smile growing on his face.

“What,” Louis began,” is that look for?”

Nick didn’t answer, but unzipped Beth’s coat. Louis began to protest- it was  _cold_ \- when Nick started laughing. “Oh, little duck, what has you daddy done to you, huh? Bet you’d like it if we got you out of some of these layers, yes?”

“Nick, stop. It’s cold.”

“You’re only in a jumper and chinos. Bet you’re not even wearing socks,” Nick countered, unwrapping Beth’s scarf and chuckling when he found another underneath. “She needs to be dressed, but it’s not the tundra around here. She’s so bundled up she can’t move and play.”

Louis crouched next to him and reached out to Beth, who was still catching her breath from her outburst. She reached out to him with a smile, though, and he smiled back with a silly grin, grabbed her hands, helping her step out of the third layer of leggings Nick was pulling off her body. Nick loosely wrapped one of the scarves back around her throat and tucked her back into her coat, pulling her hood over her head and brushing her hair back under it.

“Let’s try this again, Tomlinson One and Tomlinson Two.”

Louis gathered Beth’s extra layers- a pair of leggings, two jumpers and a scarf, hat and earmuffs. He folded them and placed them on the step near to his building’s doors before turning back.

Nick was already sprawled on his back making snow figures and Beth was looking at Louis.

“Daddy, Grimmy show how to do angels.”

“Make angels,” Louis corrected automatically. “And Grimmy can’t make angels quite like daddy can. Want me to show you?”

When she nodded and clapped, Louis picked the perfect spot, settling back against the ground. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen this much snow but it was only about an inch or two at the most. He spread his arms and legs rhythmically before standing up, careful not to mess up his outline. Beth was next to his, her feet kicking out near where his arm outline was. Nick had stood up from her other side and helped her stand up carefully when she was done. They gathered some extra snow and worked their way back from the figures, filling in their footprints. Louis grabbed his camera and snapped a shot of the three- Nick’s wings and gown noticeably larger than Louis’ and Beth’s upside down and angled between them. He showed the screen to Nick when he was done and received a kiss on his forehead.

“Looks great, love,” he whispered, Beth still stood between his legs, reaching up until she was handed the camera, mumbling a thank you distractedly.

“Thank  _you_ ,” Louis whispered to Nick, his hand sliding around Nick’s back and bringing their hips closer. He tilted his face up for a kiss and smiled into it when Nick obliged.

“Keep saving us like that and we might have to keep you around, Grimshaw.”

“Maybe that’s what I’m getting at,” Nick breathed back, pecking Louis’ lips again before turning to where Beth was yanking on his coat.

“Can we make a Frosty?”

Louis smiled as Nick picked her up and placed her on his hip. “We sure can, love. We’ll make the best snowman ever and get one of Uncle Harry’s magic hats to bring him to life, how’s that sound?”

Beth giggled, “magic isn’t real, Grimmy.”

Nick turned to Louis, mock aghast. “What lies have you taught this heathen child?  _Magic isn’t real_ , how ridiculous.”

“She got the clicker the other day when I was in the shower and managed to land on a "magic revealed" special,” Louis shrugged.

Nick shook his head and turned back to Beth, shifting her higher on his hip. He nuzzled his nose against hers gently. “Magic is real, love. Let’s go pick out Uncle Harry’s most hideous fedora and we’ll see.”

"Hazza's hats are magic?" Louis questioned.

"Nothing else explains how he makes them look appealing. How he has any right to pull them off and I look a fool when I try is beyond me."

Louis laughed and trailed them on the way inside, hands in his pockets as he watched Nick stomp his feet before entering the building. He grabbed Beth’s discarded layers before he slipped inside himself, wondering not for the first time exactly what he had signed up for when he’d originally worked up the nerve to ask Nick out.

As he listened to his daughter laugh, he decided the price was worth it more and more every day.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! The main thing getting me through real life and holiday family drama is daydreaming about these two. Not sure which timestamp is next, but there will be more for sure.
> 
> Come say hi: [tumblr](http://sa-voix.tumblr.com/)


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